The boy throws a stone.
I’ve been wondering about which verb to use here, out of tirar, lanzar, arrojar, echar, but it seems the three first mentioned are about as equal in frequency. So I think I’ll be fine as long as I don’t use echar.
These frequency checks are interesting, but they can be misleading. Echar is neither wrong nor rare, it just means something specific.
The most generic of these words is tirar. It’s one of those words that means lots of things, not all related.
Lanzar means to throw away and with some force.
Echar (in this context) means to let fall, or to throw close to you.
So if you’re next to a well and throw (let fall) a stone in it, you can say ‘eché una piedra en el pozo’ or ‘tiré una piedra en el pozo’ but not ‘lancé’.
Thank you, that’s very helpful! I take it arrojar is a bit like lanzar, throwing with some force.
Sounds to me that there is more or less some correspondence here:
tirar - to toss
lanzar - to launch (it seems they are even cognates)
arrojar - to throw
echar - to cast
Does that make sense?